The Sentinel Bottom Lane a.k.a long lane is known for its suitability for carries. We have seen various players placing their carry in this lane as it is always being considered as a "safe lane". If Scourge decides to abandon their bottom lane by placing a solo hero in this lane, I could not agree more that this lane is indeed a safe lane as Sentinel can place a jungler in the Sentinel jungle and a supporter alongside with the carry in the lane. In this situation, Sentinel's carry will be considered to be given a free farm as the Scourge's solo lane hero will have a hard time against three heroes. Besides that, bottom tower can be taken down fairly easy. However, Sentinel's top lane will suffer as much as Scourge's bottom lane. This type of lane trade is not always beneficial, therefore, we can sometimes see a trilane against a trilane at Sentinel's bottom lane.
What really happen if there are 6 heroes in a single lane? As the saying goes, "the more the merrier", there are always kills flying here and there in this packed lane. In a trilane, kills are important as experience gain is essential especially for the supporters. After giving up the gold to your carry, you have to try and obtain as much experience as possible to win the lane. Often we see the result game is decided by this trilane as the winner of this lane will have 3 stronger heroes then the opponents. Sometimes, it also forces support from the other two enemy heroes which gives your team a free farm in the other lane.
Geography of The Lane
First of all, in order to win the trilane, we have to understand the geography of the bottom lane. The distance between the tier 3 tower and the tier 2 tower is around 3000 units but the tier 1 tower is around 5400units away from its tier 2 tower. This shows that TP support will usually only come from the tier 1 tower. On the other hand, the Sentinel's creeps have to walk a longer distance compared to Scourge's and will be closer to its tower unless creep blocking is used. The area of safe zone in this lane depends on the map control of your team. Normally the smallest safe zone available in this lane will be
Safe zone behind tower
Safe zone in front of tower
The green line indicates the border of the safe zone while the red arrows indicate the possible ganking potential coming from the enemy team. One can always increase its safe zone by warding the correct position in the jungle. The 2nd picture also shows the meeting position of the creeps if there are no creep blocking.
Creep Controlling
To win the lane, creep control is very important. A change in creep equilibrium will cause creeps to meet different location. For an ideal situation, you want the creep to meet in the safe zone so your carry can farm easily. Besides that, you want to deny as many creeps as possible so that your opponents will lose most of their experience. Many players make a mistake by creep blocking their bottom lane from the start. By doing so, you will allow the Scourge creeps to be within your tower range (700units). This might initially sound to be a good idea as you are safe under your tower but having the Scourge creeps within your tower range means that your creep will be winning and pushing the lane after that. Besides standing a chance of missing last hits on the creeps to your own tower, you will lose the creep equilibrium and forced to walk out your safe zone. So, the right choice is to block the creeps when you have the vision of the Scourge creeps. When blocking, estimate the distance for the creeps to meet so that the opponents creeps will not be within your tower range. Creep blocking overall is not a necessity for Sentinel bottom lane. I've even seen teams that actually leave out creep blocking.
There are two ways to deny your creeps. The first way is by Hero skill. Heroes like Lich and Enigma are able to deny their own creep while Chen is able to sent the creep back to the fountain. The second way is creep pulling. Creep pulling actually serve two purposes. The first one is to deny your creeps, while the later is to stack up your creeps which is useful to push down the lane. I will talk about this in detail another day. For Sentinel bottom lane, usually two camps will be used for creep pulling.
Normal creep pulling camp
Camp used for double pulling
The normal creep pulling camp is used to pull and deny the Sentinel's creep when only the creep equilibrium favours the Scourge. Incorrect pulling technique and timing will cause your tower and laning heroes to be under treat. Besides that, you might stack up your creep and ended up pushing down the lane and giving free experience to the scourge side. A double pull is possible by cutting of the one of the trees in the circled path. Usually double pulling will ensure a full deny on a creep wave. However, it is not easy to perform. An easier thing to do is by stacking creeps camp which will also usually fully deny your creep wave. To cut things short, here is a link about jungling by Luminous: click me
Heroes For Trilanes
Usually trilanes will consists of three lane heroes of just two lane heroes and a single jungler supporter. Many teams prefer the later as the jungler can obtain solo experience from neutral camps and there will be a constant treat of ganking from the jungle. Moreover, from the help of neutral creeps, towers can be taken down fairly easy.
Carries
Carries that are suitable for trilane should be hard to pick of, easy in last hitting creeps, not level dependent and if possible, have a nuke or a disable skill. Here are a list of some carries that are suitable for trilaning.
Heroes
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Pros
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Cons
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Survival Skills
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Farming Abilities
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Damaging Skills
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Sniper
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-N/A
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-Long attack range
-Decent attack animation
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-AOE slow
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-fragile
-low attack damage
|
|
Juggernaut
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-blade fury
-healing ward
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-decent attack animation
-decent damage
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-high magical damage
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-melee
|
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Morphling
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-wave
-morph
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-decent attack animation
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-nuke
-mini stun
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-short range
-low attack damage
|
|
Mirana
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-leap
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-decent attack animation
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-nuke
-stun
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-unreliable stun
-low attack damage
|
|
Sladar
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-sprint
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-decent damage
-decent attack animation
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-stun with small nuke
-amplify damage
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-melee
-fragile when sprint is used
|
|
Weaver
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-shukuchi
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-decent damage
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-amplify damage
-small nuke
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-fragile
-poor attack animation
|
|
Medusa
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-mana shield
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-decent damage
-decent attack animation
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-nuke
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-no escape mechanism
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|
Dragon Knight
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-dragon blood
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-decent damage
-decent attack animation
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-nuke
-stun
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-melee
-no escape mechanism
|
*ultimates are not included as most trilane will end after level 6
Different carries are chosen in different situations, it is all down to the team's preference and strategy. Bare in mind that no hero is all rounded, there is a give and take in all situations. This is why supporters are here for.
Supporters
Supporters for trilane should have disable skills, not level dependent and if possible hard to pick off.
Here are a list of supporters that are suitable for trilaning.
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Heroes
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Pros
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Cons
|
|
Earthshaker
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-long range stun with nuke and path block ability (1200)
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-single disable skills
-mana dependent
-melee
|
|
Crystal Maiden
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-long range slow with nuke(700)
-stun with dps
-mana supplier
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-extremely fragile
|
|
Orge Magi
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-long range stun (600)
-long range slow (700)
-tank
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-melee
|
|
Jakiro
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-long range slow with nuke (500 can up to 950)
-long range stun (1100)
-tank
|
-low attack range
|
|
Rhasta
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-long range multi target nuke (500 can up to 1000)
-long disable time
-hex
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-fragile
-disables himself when disabling enemy
|
|
Bane
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-nuke with heal for himself
-long disable time
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-fragile
-mana dependent
|
|
Lion
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-long range stun (500 up to 700)
-hex
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-fragile
|
|
Shadow Demon
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-long range disable (600)
-disrupt can be used on teammates
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-fragile
|
|
Shadow Priest
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-slow with ministun
-heal with damage
-shallow grave
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-mana dependent
-shallow grave range is low for low level
|
|
Witch Doctor
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-multi target stun if cast properly
-heal
-damage over time
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-fragile
|
|
Tide Hunter
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-long range slow with nuke (700)
-attack damage reduction with nuke
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-melee
-mana dependent
|
|
Vengeful Spirit
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-stun with nuke
-long range armor reduction wave which can be used for scouting
(1400)
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-mana dependent
|
*figures in brackets () are the casting range of the spell
*ultimates are not included
Different supporters are chosen in different situations, a suitable supporter should be chosen to team up with the carry perfectly.
Supportive Junglers
There are various heroes that are suitable for jungling. However, what I meant here are those heroes that can farm in the jungle, have the potential to gank the lane as well as pushing down tower quickly by the help of neutral creeps. There are only two heroes that is able to do so which is Chen and Enchantress.
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Heroes
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Pros
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Cons
|
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Chen
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-able to control up to a maximum of 3 neutrals
-nuke (pure damage)
-slow
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-level dependent
-mana dependent
|
|
Enchantress
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-able to control up to a maximum of 2 neutrals
-slow
-heal
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-creep does not last forever (80s)
-fragile
-mana dependent
|
*ultimates are not included
Junglers usually will be farming on the three neutral creep camps near to the bottom lane as ganks might happen anytime in the lane. When jungling, the player has to be aware of what is going on in the lane. A good jungler will keep the pressure on the lane from time to time while jungling. However the jungling strategy can be easily countered by warding. There are various way to ward in the Sentinel's jungle and there are also techniques for counter warding. I will talk more about it in Part 2.
I think that's all from me for today. I've spent hours working on this. Leave a comment below if u like it. Lastly, I hope you guys enjoy reading and hopefully, you guys learn something new today.
